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No.1 Chung Ying Street 中英街1號 (2018) - Hong Kong   Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)     After years of making movies for the Chinese audience, Hong Kong veteran director Derek Chiu goes political, social and even controversial about the 1967 Hong Kong riots against the British government and paralleling this with the more current Umbrella movement and Occupy Central in 2014. Stunned by the Hong Kong International Film Festival in flavour for Taiwanese and Japanese Films and rejected by the Hong Kong Film Development Council, Chiu manages to raise a limited budget of HK$3 million...

Bel Canto (2018) - USA   Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)     Based on the true story of an Opera singer’s romance with a Japanese Businessman in the middle of a hostage situation in Peru. This provide a rare opportunity for an Asian American Ken Watanabe to share a intimate romance with Julianne Moore further adding to Asian Representation in Hollywood. It shows how people whether in captivity or forced to stay within an isolated environment will react and eventually adapt to their given surroundings. What makes the film clicks is left largely due to...

Project Gutenberg 無雙 (2018) - Hong Kong / China   Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)     It’s been a while and probably too long since the audience enjoyed a Chow Yun Fat’s performance. After being under the spell of wacky Wong Jing, Chow returns to what he does best, playing complicated characters and firing bullets in John Woo and Ringo Lam’s style. However, that’s just the beginning of the good news as “Project Gutenberg” is thoroughly entertaining, twisted and even layered with depth. It is a highly entertaining and engaging film that uses the maximum...

The Nun (2018) - USA   Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)      One of the delights of the latest “Conjuring” spinoff - “The Nun” is more in the creepy setting of a remote gothic style Romanian castle than the jumping “Nuns” scaring the hell out of you. Despite the thin story, director Corin Hardy crafted the tense and thrilling scenes quite well and maintained the horror and suspenseful mood for most of the duration. Some of the most scary scenes remains the investigative priest played by Demian Bichir being chased to cemetery and buried alive....

First Man 登月第一人 (2018) - USA   Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)     Directed by 2016 Oscar winning “La La Land”, Damien Chazelle, the latest film reunites Ryan Gosling in creating something worthy of more than a single viewing. Rather than go the simpler patriotic route to satisfy and touch the mass audience, Chazelle employs a similar vision as the recent masterpiece “Dunkirk” in its execution. What we get as a result is a slow burn character study that portray the real struggles of human emotions during the time and journey of Neil Armstrong much...